Chullin 104: Separating Milk and Meats

We have been learning about laws of kashrut.  Yesterday our Misha taught that every kind of meat is forbidden to be coked in milk except for the meat of fish and grasshoppers.  We learned that it is also forbidden to place meat and cheese on the same table, again with the exception of the flesh of fish and grasshoppers.

The Gemara tells us that Rabbi Akiva disagrees.  He says that the ofot, the flesh of fowl, and chayyot, the flesh of wild animals are not considered to be meat regarding the halachot of meat and milk.  Rav Ahi says that the Mishna should be read as "every kind of meat is forbidden to be cooked in milk, domesticated animals forbidden by Torah and the meat of fowl and wild animals forbidden by the Sages.  The exceptions are the meat of fish and grasshoppers, which are not forbidden by Torah nor by the Sages".

The  Gemara tells us that Rabbi Abba's father-in-law Agra taught that fowl and cheese may be eaten without washing one's hands nor cleaning one's mouth between eating one and the other.  The Ramban teaches us that Agra considers fowl to be other than meat according to Torah, so the Sages do not require the same level of separation between milk products and fowl as between milk products and real meat.  Rabbeinu Tam wonders whether Agra might believe that fowl does not become stuck on the ands, teeth and gums in the way that 'real' meat does.

The Rambam confines Agra's teaching to situations where cheese was eaten before the fowl, though this does not seem to be the simple meaning of his statement.  Regardless, common practice is that we do not distinguish between fowl and meat regarding the amount of time that people must wait before consuming milk products.